Changing Beliefs About Female Leader Advancement Following the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

Abstract

Scholars have discussed the implications of positive leadership role models, including the impact of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s political rise for aspiring leaders of underrepresented groups. However, there are also potential ramifications when those role models fail, shaping broader beliefs about the permeability of the glass ceiling. The current research tests this idea by evaluating the perceived promotability of male and female business leaders before ( n = 165) and following ( n = 159) the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Results indicated that the election result negatively affected the perceived promotability of women relative to men. A conceptual replication study ( N = 997) manipulating election reminders yielded a similar pattern. Notably, respondents’ own beliefs about the glass ceiling and willingness to work with the targets did not change, suggesting that Clinton’s failed leadership bid informed predictions about the behavior of others, but it did not shift personal attitudes toward female leaders.

Authoritarians and social dominators view career women markedly different (but only if they fail)

“…Consistently across studies, a woman working in nontraditional job without success (job‐related or political) was rated as colder and less likable by social dominators, but as warmer and more likable by authoritarians. This analysis might be helpful to gain a better understanding of the reactions that women in leadership positions evoke, particular if they fail (see for example Yates & Okimoto, 2019, for research on the effect of Hillary Clinton's failed presidential bid on the perceived promotability of women as leaders).…”

“…Past research has shown that success and failure of politicians can have downstream consequences on observers. Hence, following Barack Obama's successful presidential campaign levels of implicit prejudice have been found to be strongly reduced (Plant et al., 2009), whereas Hillary Clinton's nonsuccessful presidential bid elicited a reduction in the perceived promotability of women relative to men for leadership positions (Yates & Okimoto, 2019). Based on the findings of Studies 1a and 1b, we hypothesized that in particular liking for a woman with a nontraditional job background who is politically unsuccessful would be influenced in contrasting ways by RWA and SDO.…”

Favorable Evaluations of Black and White Women’s Workplace Anger During the Era of #MeToo

“…Although research on stereotypes about gender and emotion suggests these stereotypes tend to remain stable over time (e.g., Shields et al, 2018), the sociohistorical context could also affect perceivers' judgments of anger appropriateness. Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic that currently is sweeping the world is a reminder that historic and cultural events can have a broad effect on psychological phenomena (e.g., Plant et al, 2009;Sawyer and Gampa, 2018;Yates and Okimoto, 2019). Psychologists have been most engaged with investigating the direct effects of these events (e.g., Rudman et al, 2013).…”